Various forms of outdoor lighting are presently used to illuminate relatively small areas such as gas station lots, fast food service facilities, parking lots and foot traffic areas, street lighting, and the like. Lighting for such areas is often provided by lighting fixtures that serve to illuminate the selected areas but also produce glare and unwanted lighting outside such areas. Excessive lighting is an inefficient use of electrical energy at best and can also create a night driving safety hazard for motorists. Excessive lighting can also be an annoyance for residents in close proximity to the light sources.
Many different directional spot lighting fixtures have been produced in attempted solutions to the above problem. However most are provided as perimeter lighting and are effective only when the light fixture can be mounted high above the ground. Highly confined perimeter light distribution also requires numerous expensive fixtures set on poles or other structures that are also expensive to purchase and install.
Lighting in confined, interior spaces is often controlled by the use of parabolic lighting louvers set in panels that are mounted flush with ceiling surfaces or suspended from ceilings. Parabolic louvers are highly effective to evenly disburse light to particular areas from relatively low elevations. Lighting cut-off angles may be accurately controlled and direct glare can be minimized. However, such louvers have not been useful in outside conditions. This is due to the fragile nature of the louvers and the fact that the louver sections cannot be easily cleaned. A coating of dust on the specular finish of parabolic reflectors drastically reduces lighting efficiency. Thus, though the highly efficient and desirable parabolic louver panels are widely known in the interior lighting industry, similar panels adapted for exterior lighting have not been available.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide an encased lighting louver that will facilitate adaptation to outdoor lighting by providing encasement for the louver.
Another object is to provide such a louver that will provide the advantages of parabolic louver lighting, but that will protect and eliminate the need to clean the louver surfaces in outdoor installations.
A further objective is to provide an outdoor lighting housing that is particularly suited to mount lighting louvers of conventional indoor configuration.
These and further objectives and advantages may become apparent from the following description.